1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image edition/compile apparatus, an image editing method, and an image editing program for producing a photo movie by editing still images.
2. Description of the Related Art
A still image photographed by a digital still camera can be enjoyed by viewing by printing on a photographic paper and by loading image data into a personal computer (PC) and displaying on a monitor by using an image viewer software. In many cases, an image viewer software is provided with a slide show function, which displays still images by changing over the images at a predetermined time interval. By using such function, a user can easily enjoy a large number of still images.
Besides, as a method for viewing still images similar to such slide show, a photo movie is proposed as image sequence which reproduces still images just like a moving picture by using still images as materials and by editing the material (see, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0110354 and “LiFE*with-Photo-Cinema” by digitalstage inc., searched on Apr. 6, 2004, via the Internet, <URL:http://www.digitalstage.net/jp/product/life/index.html>). In a photo movie, motion is provided in still images by providing the still image with a special effect such as a zoom-in processing, which crops a portion of the still image and closes up such portion and panning processing, which moves an eyepoint from one end of the still image to the other.
Such photo movie provides a new way of enjoying the still image different from conventional way of viewing still images, and attracts attention as one of the ways to reuse still images photographed and stored by the user.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0110354 and “LiFE*with-Photo-Cinema” respectively disclose an image editing software for producing a photo movie using still images as materials. Because both types of such image editing software are intended for use in a personal computer, any user who possesses a personal computer can use such software.
However, in an image editing software as described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0110354, an editing operation is very complicated because a reproduction order of still images should be designated and special effects should be designated per each still image.
Furthermore, in an image editing software as described in “LiFE* with-Photo-Cinema”, as well as a manual mode, by which a detailed editing designation is made manually, there is provided an automatic mode, which produces a photo movie automatically by merely selecting images used as a material. In such an automatic mode, because all editing conditions, except image selection, are set by automatic setting by a computer, operation becomes very easy. However, in such an automatic mode, a quality of the photo movie often becomes flat because there is no precedence or difference in handling and editing of selected images: that is, for example, an assigned displaying time and the number of times of displaying an image are approximately even.